XCOM : Enemy Within
by SadCaptainPanda
Summary: When aliens catch the world unaware, the XCOM Initiative is the only thing that stands a chance. While local armies are fighting the menace, the XCOM recruits civilians to stay in the fight.
1. Prologue : The First Mission

Prologue

A man leaped sideways, narrowly dodging a beam of light that flew over his head and struck a wall, creating a hole where moonlight shimmered in. As it hit his face, he closed his eyes.

 _Come on, man. You can do this. There might be two of them, but you can do this. Just don't get shot._

He chuckled at his own stupid sense of humour, but took it to heart nonetheless. His eyes shot open as he remembered what the exact predicament he found himself in. He decided to take a quick peek over the crate he was using as cover to assess the situation. As his eyes peeked out from the side of the crate, another shot was fired, sheering the side of the crate off. The one thing he could take in was that he still had one companion in this recon mission gone wrong, but she was pinned down. He took a deep breath and rounded the crate, gun held out, ready to fire.

"Central? This is Big Sky. Looks like we found the crash site." The pilot hovered over the smouldering wreckage that used to be a street.

Central Officer Bradford took in the grainy image being transmitted by the Skyranger camera. Failing to see anything, he replied. "Roger Voodoo Three-One. Any sign of activity?"

"Negative, sir. Nothing's moving down there." The pilot shook his head, saddened by the devastation in front of him. _What could have caused it?_ He wondered.

"Okay, set her down nearby, but be ready for any trouble." Bradford advised. He was shaken by the events of the day. Everything had been completely fine when he woke up. He wished he were still sleeping, and pinched himself to make sure he wasn't.

"Ouch!"

He sighed. _I'm awake alright. This isn't a dream._ This was not how he pictured the day going. Since a minor incursion in the 60's, the organization he was a part of did not have a purpose. Honestly, Bradford preferred it that way. Having read the files, he assumed that it was going to start again. This was how it started last time. A crash that decimated entire streets with collateral damage, suspicious circumstances in which the local authorities stop responding. Bradford prayed that it wasn't happening again. _If it is happening, I hope those soldiers will keep their heads. If it's anything like the last 'first contact'..._

He prayed it wasn't happening again.

Sergeant Leroy Gregory sat in the back of the Skyranger, looking at his team. _Just another mission with the regular team...and a new guy._ Sergeant Gregory didn't like meeting new people, especially if they had to have his back once they landed. _If I met him a couple weeks before the mission, fine. But on the Skyranger?_ _Ridiculous!_

He was recruited after five years with the Rangers, serving with Corporal Devon Jackson and Specialist Jeannette Love. They had served together with the Rangers, and they had worked together on the few missions they'd had since becoming UN Peacekeepers. They treated each other like old friends, which they were. They laughed, told stories about their other 'heroic' endeavours, and teased each other.

The odd one out was Keagan Knox, a private picked up straight from basic training with the Canadian military. He was nineteen, standing six foot twol with a lean, muscled physique, but he seemed to be shy, as he hadn't said a word since he got on the plane. _He could be a good soldier, given a bit of time._ Sergeant Gregory thought. _I'll see him through this first mission. It's just a recon job, even if it is for a guy who won't tell us a damn thing about what we're looking for. Still, it should be simple enough._ _Should be a cakewalk._

The pilot's voice came on over the radio with a crackle.

"We're landing in 60 seconds!" The pilot called. "I'll be waiting to pick you guys up, just radio Command and I'll come get ya!"

"Will do!" replied the sergeant. He turned to his fellow soldiers, yelling over the Skyranger's engines. "Alright, people, listen up! We got a call at 2100 hours to HQ in Vienna! There seemed to be some kind of attack in Munich! Apparently, an entire street was destroyed by some kind of projectile! Our job is to secure the area, and, if we come across any hostiles, to eliminate the threat! However, I must stress that we are not to use lethal force if it can be avoided! Am I clear?"

"SIR, YES, SIR!" There was a resounding chorus. The soldiers grabbed their assault rifles from the rack and walked to the exit. The sergeant's smile turned to a frown as the door to the Skyranger opened, revealing a devastated street. Flames were not yet out, burning in the streets, giving a dim light to the horrific scene. Nearly every car on the street was flipped, bodies lay in the streets, and all that was heard was the crackle of the fire. All four of the soldiers quickly flicked the safety off, setting their guns to automatic. The squad quickly moved out onto the street and the Skyranger rose back into the dark sky. Sergeant Gregory swallowed, then turned on his radio.

"Command, you gettin' all this?"

"Copy that, Delta Squad. First thing's first, let's get you out of the open and into cover. Whatever did this could still be out there." Central Officer Bradford's voice came through all four soldiers earpieces.

Sergeant Gregory moved forwards, motioning for his squad to spread out. Corporal Jackson followed the sergeant to the right, motioning for Specialist Love to go with Private Knox. She rolled her eyes at him, but nodded to him. She gestured to Keagan towards the left and the two set off. Love took the lead and found cover in the form of a pickup truck rolled on its side, and Keagan took cover by a car a few feet back. Love held up a hand and Keagan stopped moving. She looked over and saw the sergeant and corporal both standing still, staring at her. She spoke quickly into her radio.

"Central, I have movement. 30 meters north of my position. In a police vehicle."

"Roger, Delta Four. Advance, but we advise caution."

The specialist moved forward slowly, keeping a close eye on her surroundings. As she drew level with the police vehicle, she gasped. "HOLY HELL!"

"What do you see, Delta four? Report!" Bradford's voice was full of worry.

A man lay on the ground, groaning in pain. Blood soaked his protective armour and coated his face. He reached out to Jeanette, gasping for air. He managed to drag himself a few feet closer to her. She stepped back in revulsion as she realized one of his legs was a stump at the knee, bleeding profusely into the street. His hand reached out one more time, then slumped to the ground. Specialist Love took a shaky breath.

"Looks like one of the recon team, sir. It looks like something..."

" _HILFE!_ " The sound came in through their headsets loudly, causing everyone to wince. Bradford was the first to recover his wits.

"Is that your man, Delta Four?"

"Negative, sir. That's... someone else." The specialist shuddered, worried that someone could get onto the frequency.

" _HILFE!_ " The call came out again, with more urgency.

"Get me Doctor Vahlen on the line, now!" Bradford shouted to a comm specialist. The man quickly patched her in.

"Yes sir?" Doctor Vahlen's voice came through.

"Doctor Vahlen, what's he saying?"

" _Hilfe..._ " The voice was sounding significantly weaker.

"He's saying..." Doctor Vahlen paused for a moment. "Help."

"We've got to do something! The man is blatantly calling out for help!" Keagan's silence came to an end as he hoped that the sergeant would agree with him.

"I gotta say, I'm with the rook on this one." Sergeant Gregory said tentatively.

"Well, if you are sure, that radio transmission is coming from somewhere north of your current position," said the doctor. "Based on its strength, probably inside a structure."

Sergeant Gregory looked around and spotted a warehouse about 30 meters away. "Got it. Thanks Doc."

Bradford's voice came back over the radio. "Alright, Delta, advance and infiltrate that building."

The squad began to move forward through the streets again. They walked right up to the building and Keagan had his hand on the handle before to sergeant stopped him.

"Listen rook, just bustin' in there without a game plan is a bad idea. My thought is, once we open the door, everyone get to cover as fast as you can, alright?"

Keagan nodded. The sergeant looked at the rest of the team and they nodded as well. Knox took a breath, then opened the door and quickly entered the building.

The warehouse was dark, save for one light shining on a man. The man's face was obscured, but his attire marked him as a member of the security force that had been sent to investigate. He held an assault rifle in one hand and a grenade in the other. His voice could just barely be heard from across the warehouse floor, with boxes and crates between the squad and the man. " _Hilfe..."_

Keagan remembered the sergeant's orders and quickly moved into cover and found Corporal Jackson beside him. Specialist Love was across the space, behind a crate that was just outside the ring of light. Sergeant Gregory was with her.

"Central, we have eyed on the target. He's armed."

"Copy that Delta. Move in and disarm him."

Sergeant Gregory nodded, then began to move towards the man. As Gregory stepped into the light, the man suddenly stood still. Gregory slowly grabbed the light and raised it to show the man's face. The light rose up slowly, but as it reached the man's eyes Gregory gasped. They were a cloudy purple, and the area around them was discoloured as well.

"My god!"

The security guard raised his gun, and before Gregory could react, shot him through the heart. A gasp was heard by the squad and as they looked out, the mysterious man flicked the pin out of the grenade. Keagan's eyes grew wide.

"GET DOWN!"

The squad took cover as an explosion boomed, echoing through the warehouse. Keagan looked up after the explosion to see Gregory as Bradford's voice came over the radio.

"What's going on!? Delta Squad, report!"

"He shot him, Central! Sergeant Gregory is down!" Corporal Jackson bawled.

Keagan took in the charred area and the dead body of the sergeant. Horrified, he looked past the ring of light and saw two glowing purple eyes. He quickly raised his assault rifle and fired off a quick burst. The eyes ducked, then moved into the light. The only way to describe the form was: alien. Keagan's voice shouted out,

"We're under attack!"

Corporal Jackson looked at him as though he had lost his mind. Specialist Love looked out and saw the alien and gasped. The alien hissed at her and immediately lay down suppressing fire to keep her low. Corporal Jackson saw that and rose up to his feet to shoot the alien, when suddenly, with a flash of light, his head exploded. Keagan gasped as he stepped out to fire at the alien, when it took a shot at him as well. Keagan leaped back into cover and blinked as the moonlight hit his face.

He took a quick look to see if the specialist was still alive and was relieved to see she was in the brief second before he had to pull back into cover as a laser shot past the edge of the crate. Knox took a deep breath, then rounded the side of the box, firing two bursts, both of them landing, knocking the alien backwards. It thumped to the floor, dead.

Keagan turned to Specialist Love with a smile when she rose and aimed her gun at him. His eyes squeezed shut for a second and a shot fired through the air. Keagan opened his eyes and saw Love smirking.

"Saved your life." She nodded behind him. He turned around to see another dead alien with a clean shot through the eye.

"Shit." Keagan said. "Nice shot." They smiled as each other, then Love's face contorted in a scream of pain as a laser shot through her chest. Keagan looked past her and saw another alien, hissing with glee.

"NO!" Keagan yelled as he raised his gun. The alien's eyes widened and it aimed its gun at him, but he fired off a shot faster. The bullet drilled the alien through the chest and it let out and angry squeal before it dropped to the ground, dead.

Keagan gasped and fell to his knees. His eyes closed and he clenched his fists. His eyes shot open as a voice came over his radio.

"Come in Delta! Are you there?"

Keagan's voice came back. "Central, I think that's it. It's over. I'm the last one left."

"Roger that Delta. I'm sorry. But please, secure the bodies and head back to the Skyranger for immediate extraction."

Back at the base, Doctor Vahlen and Central Officer Bradford stood facing a monitor with an image of one of the aliens. They studied its face for what felt like an eternity before either of them broke the silence.

"What are they?" Doctor Vahlen asked.

Bradford didn't want to worry her with the truth, but at the same time, she had to be ready to help. "Whatever they are, they nearly wiped out a squad of some damn good soldiers."

"Will more follow?" A voice came from the doorway. It was Doctor Shen, lead engineer of the project. Bradford sighed.

"If you'll excuse me, doctors. I've got to go see to that soldier who survived the ambush."

After Bradford had walked out, Shen turned to Vahlen.

"Their technology is far beyond ours."

"Then I'd say our work is cut out for us. Doctor."

Keagan Knox stepped off the ramp from the Skyranger to see Bradford standing a few feet away. Knox walked over to him and shook his hand.

"You must be the guy I was talking to?"

Bradford nodded. "I'm Central Officer Bradford. I'm sorry about your squad. I'm sure what you just went through was tough."

Knox let out a dry laugh. "No, I go through that every other weekend." He took a look around. "Now where am I? I need to report back to HQ."

Bradford sighed. "Well... Private Knox, is it?" Keagan nodded. "I wish I didn't have to say this, but I guarantee these kind of attacks are going to keep happening. And since you've got experience with them, I'd like to offer you a chance to join our operation in attempting to stop them."

Keagan eyed the hangar as he considered the option. _Those bastards just decimated my team. Hell, how can I call them my team, I barely knew them for a few hours. And now they're dead._ He looked at Bradford. "You're giving me a shot at those shits who killed my people?"

Bradford nodded.

"Then you've got yourself a deal. Officer." Keagan held out his hand. Bradford smiled and took it, giving it a firm shake.

"Well then, Private Knox. Welcome to XCOM."


	2. Chapter 1 : Meeting the Recruits

Chapter 1 – New Recruits

 _A few days later..._

The Skyranger flew down to the landing pad in the XCOM main base. As it landed, the ramp lowered, revealing a new batch of eight recruits. Central Officer Bradford stood waiting for them. He sighed. They'd had to increase recruitment, which meant going to the option of civilian recruitment. Bradford took a look at his list, then back at the recruits, who were jostling and teasing each other, having warmed up to the group on the flight. _I hope they're ready for this._ He cleared his throat and the group looked his way.

"Alright recruits! Welcome to XCOM. I am Central Officer Bradford. You have all signed up to fight the aliens, but first you must be trained! To that end, I'd like you all the get settled into the barracks. It's just outside the hangar, first door on the right. You are cleared to leave once I have called your name. Are we clear?"

There was a rumble of nods and a few yeses. Bradford shook his head.

"When I ask you a question, all I want to hear back is either 'yes sir' or 'no sir'. Now I will ask again. Are we clear?!"

"YES, SIR!"

"Much better." Bradford smiled, then looked at his list. "Felix Phelps!"

"Here, sir." Felix stepped forward. Bradford nodded at him. Felix stood at an imposing six foot five, with light skin and a muscular build, his long blonde hair falling into his blue eyes. He saluted.

"At ease." Felix relaxed his body, widening his stance. "Avril Finn!"

"Sir!" Avril stepped out of the line. She was rather short, only standing at five foot two, porcelain skin. She stood stock still as a single lock of her dark hair fell into her bright green eyes. Bradford nodded to her.

"At ease, soldier. Go to the barracks and await your next orders. You too, Phelps." Avril brushed her hair out of her face as she walked towards the barracks along with Felix.

"Lucas Porter!"

A short Asian man stepped out of the line. "Sir!" He stood at five foot six, and stick thin. His jet black hair was cropped short, his brown eyes staring directly ahead. Bradford nodded. "At ease." Lucas walked stiffly off towards the barracks.

"Lindsay Macfadden!" A tall, gangly girl stepped out of the line. "Here, sir!"

Lindsay was six feet on the nose, a spray of freckles across her cheeks, long red hair and vibrant blue eyes. She made a passable attempt at standing to attention. Bradford inwardly groaned. He had enough to worry about without having to worry about a completely untrained civilian coming into the advanced training XCOM agents required. "At ease. To the barracks with you." Lindsay nodded and began to walk away. "AND WORK ON STANDING TO ATTENTION!" She blushed as she rushed away.

The other trainees sniggered quietly at her misfortune at being singled out so early, but quickly silenced themselves as Bradford turned around.

"Conrad Warner!" A slightly overweight boy stepped out of the line and stood to attention. "Sir!"

Conrad was just shy of six feet, light brown hair hanging down to his neck, innocent blue eyes looking at Bradford, almost anticipating the roasting he was going to get for not being in peak physical condition. Bradford just nodded at him. "At ease. On you go." Away he went.

"Patricia Greer!"

A dark skinned, muscular girl stepped out of the line. "Here, sir!" She called out.

She stood at five foot ten, short hair brushed to the left, revealing the shaved temple on the right. She stared directly ahead, stock still, her almost black eyes staring hard at the far wall of the hanger. Bradford smiled on the inside. _A good soldier. God knows we'll need more like her to win this war._ "Dismissed." Pat stayed where she was as Bradford moved down the list. "Lillian Greer!"

"Here sir!" A shorter version of her sister, Lillian stood at five foot three, with the opposite side of her head shaved. Bradford looked at the two and nodded. "Dismissed. Get moving, soldiers." The two sisters walked towards the barracks, chatting quietly.

"Stephen Quinn!" The last man was the epitome of a 'surfer dude', tanned skin, long blonde hair, blue eyes, standing at five foot eight. "Here, sir." Bradford nodded. "Join your comrades." Quinn nodded, turned on heel and walked towards the barracks.

Bradford sighed. He knew that the trainers had their work cut out for them.

* * *

The eight recruits sat around in the male room of the barracks, having all staked out a bed in their separate rooms. They chatted amicably, getting to know each other.

"Since we're going to be training together, I figure we should just go around and say something about ourselves. Nickname, age, where you're from and the like? I guess I'll go first, I'm Avril Finn, preferably Finn. I'm 19, and I'm from Manchester."

"Felix Phelps, call me Felix. 21, from Stockholm."

"Lucas Porter, I guess you can call me Luke. I'm 24, from Omaha."

"Lindsay Macfadden, I usually go by Lindsay. I'm 20, and I'm from Toronto."

"Conrad Warner, you can call me Conrad or Warner, I don't really care. I'm 21, from Calais."

"Patricia Greer. Call me Pat. I'm 22, from Johannesburg. This is my sister, Lillian. She goes by Lily. She's 18."

"Stephen Quinn. Call me Steve or Quinn, player's choice. I'm 25, from San Francisco."

Lindsay spoke up. "How hard do you guys think training is going to be?"

Quinn snorted. "Depends on if you've got any training whatsoever. If you're coming in right off the street, it's gonna be tough." He shot a pointed look at Conrad and Lindsay. "Like you two, for instance. You can't even salute, and he's not in shape. It's gonna be a hard couple of weeks for the two of you."

"Leave them alone, Quinn," Felix said. "It's bad enough joining up in this kind of shitty situation, but to have some jerk picking on them already?" He turned to Lindsay and Conrad. "Just ignore him, he's just bitter cause he's old."

Quinn smirked as everyone shared a laugh. "Well, in every army cadet movie, there's one prick in the group. Might as well be me."

Conrad chuckled. "Does that make you the super macho one too?"

"Nah, that's Felix over there. You see the size of him? How could I ever compete?"

"So what does that make the rest of us?" Finn asked.

"Well, if we're going by movie tropes, you're _obviously_ the sex icon of the group. Pat's the tough girl, and Lily is the shy one," Quinn replied. "Lucas is the the short guy who feels like he needs to make up for it." Everyone laughed again. "I think we've already established me as the jerk, and Felix as the macho tough guy. Conrad and Lindsay are the less competent two who will inevitably become really good."

"So do I get to kick your ass for being so mean to us?" Lindsay quipped.

"Maybe. Depends how good you get." Quinn winked jokingly at her. She played along, shuddering in mock disgust.

"So…" Lucas began. "Have any of you… actually seen one?"

Finn, Felix, Conrad and Lindsay all shook their heads.

Quinn, Pat and Lily all nodded.

"What?! When did you see them?"

Lily spoke up. "I saw them when they attacked Johannesburg. One of their pods crashed down onto the street, and then those...things came out. They started shooting into the crowd of people who showed up. Killed a lot of them. The little ones that look like your standard alien from the movies. They just... " Lily's voice broke off, and her eyes went to the floor. Pat walked over to comfort her sister, then spoke up. "They killed a lot of people, let's just leave it at that. What about you, Quinn? Where did you see them?"

"San Fran. Same kind of situation. I was with a bunch of my friends, walking around the city when one of those things landed. They popped out, shot up the place. I just started running. Eventually I got to the bridge where the military had a roadblock set up. They picked me up, and I said I wanted to fight these… aliens. So they took me to their base, and then next thing you know, here I am."

"I'm… I'm sorry to hear about that, Quinn," Finn said, frowning. "Do you know what happened to your friends?"

"Nah." Quinn looked down. "I just ran. I shouldn't have, but I did. I didn't even look to see if they were following me. Marc, Kristine, Nico… Courtney. My best friends… and I just left them to die." A slow stream of tears were falling from Quinn's eyes. The rest of them tactfully pretended not to notice.

It was at that moment that Bradford walked into the room. Everyone stood to attention, Quinn wiping his eyes as he stood.

"At ease, soldiers." Everyone relaxed. "Your training takes precedence over any kind of assignments you might have had. You will be joined by another newer member to XCOM. Everyone, meet Private Keagan Knox."

Keagan walked into the room, brushing his black hair out of his face, his steely grey eyes surveying his new teammates. They all studied him as well.

"Evening, everyone. You can all call me Keagan. No need to stand on occasion, we're all going to be the same rank." He smiled weakly.

"Nice to meet you Keagan," Finn stepped up. "I'm Avril Finn, you can call me Finn." She pointed to each person as she introduced them. Keagan shook hands with everyone.

"Hate to break up the introductions," Bradford said, "But training begins at 0500 tomorrow morning. You may want to get some sleep, because it's going to be quite scarce for the next little while."

Keagan grinned. "Ah, basic training. Here I come again." He chuckled to himself. "Ladies, if you don't mind, while I'm sure that us gents would love to continue chatting with you, we really should get some sleep."

"Agreed, man. Ladies, if you would?" Quinn said. The girls jokingly complained as they left the room, grumbling good naturedly about 'missing the show'. Felix chuckled as the door closed.

"Well boys, looks like we've got a long few weeks ahead of us. I'll see you boys in the morning."

* * *

 _Author's Note: My apologies for the boxed wine dialogue, I just wanted to get everybody introduced, give people a visual in their heads. Hopefully, it wasn't too painful to read, but the next chapter should be better._


End file.
